Since returning from WTM London on Wednesday, our headquarters in Interlaken has been buzzing with feedback and comments from conversations with customers, potential customers and industry leaders. We find conferences like these useful because we get a better idea of where the travel industry is headed.

With regards to Facebook, I explained you had to invest in some Facebook advertising. But with Twitter, growing your following organically (the internet’s way of saying ‘free’) is a lot easier.

Here are 10 tried and tested ways to grow your following on the world’s most famous microblogging platform.

1. TweetThis might sound obvious, but I come across a startling amount of businesses on Twitter that don’t actually tweet. If you’re not going to tweet, why have the Twitter icon on your homepage? However, if you are going to tweet, you’ll see your Twitter following grow.

2. EngageDo you know some people who do nothing but talk about themselves? I’m guessing you probably don’t like them too much. If you only tweet about your business and never engage with other people on Twitter, then you are one of these people. You also won’t get as many followers.

Make sure you engage with other users as well as promote yourself. You’ll make new connections which means more followers and more chances of creating customers.

3. Join travel Twitter chatsThere are lots of Twitter chats that focus solely on travel. I’ve written about them on this blog before. For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, very briefly: they are organised chats at a certain time of the week where lots of people talk about a topic using the same hashtag. Get involved in them and your Twitter following will be larger at the end of each one.

4. Have a strategyThis also might seem obvious, but to help you with all the above you need a strategy in the first place. Think about why you’re using Twitter (sales, traffic, engagement etc.) before you get involved and you’ll know why you’re there, when you should be there, and what you should be saying there.

5. Get involved in topical, relevant conversationsI need to be very clear here – I’m not suggesting you start tweeting about Kanye West just because he’s trending after the MTV VMAs. I’m suggesting you get involved in topical conversations that are relevant. Once you do you’ll find other likeminded people who want to talk about the same things, some of whom will be sure to follow you.

6. Use photosResearch has shown that tweets using images get 313% more engagement than those that don’t. More engagement means more followers. If you’re not using a lot of images in your tweets, now is the time to start.

7. Leverage hashtagsWith the above in mind, it’s said that images are the new hashtag. This isn’t really the case – they haven’t replaced hashtags, which you should still use in your tweets. By using hashtags, you’ll reach a wider audience, subsequently increasing the chances of gaining new followers.

8. Use Twitter listsKeeping track of every single person you follow on Twitter is difficult. If you want to see some tweets of certain users so you can engage with them and turn them into followers, add them to a list, check up on that list regularly, engaging wherever relevant, thus encouraging said users to follow you.

Colm is Founder and Managing Director of digital marketing agency Sixtwo Digital. After running Hostelworld.com’s content and social media for almost 11 years he felt it was time to branch out on his own, using all his experience to educate others in the travel space.

We're here to support you all the way

TrekkSoft was founded to address the needs of our local tour and activity industry in Interlaken, Switzerland. We understand the industry and you can rely on our team to onboard your business, introduce you to digital best practice, and guide you to success from the start.